What are the cheapest Bose headphones you can buy in 2026?
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Who doesn’t want to own a fantastic pair of headphones? Great sound quality and features like active noise cancellation (ANC) are essential parts of on-ear, over-ear, and in-ear audio, and one of the brands that makes all three is Bose. Unfortunately, Bose headphones and headphones are some of the most expensive audio products on the market (the same goes for the brand’s Bluetooth speakers). Unless you’re buying a used or refurbished item, it’ll be difficult to find Bose headphones costing less than $200.
Now, “hard” doesn’t mean “impossible,” and as luck would have it, we actually found a pair of Bose headphones for under $200 that can be purchased new. We’re talking about the $180 Bose QuietComfort Earbuds, which hit the market in 2024. Believe it or not, we’d actually recommend them over the $300 QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen), Bose’s flagship in-ear product. Why, you ask? For starters, the QC earbuds beat the QC Ultra in battery life; the former offers up to 8.5 hours on a full charge, while the latter is limited to 6 hours.
We also like that the QC headphones have a dedicated “Off” setting for ANC. With the Bose QC Ultra, you have to create a custom sound profile to turn off ANC completely manually; there is no simple on/off toggle. It’s also worth mentioning that the QC Earbuds come in seven colors, while the QC Ultra is limited to five.
The Bose QuietComfort headphones are the cheapest Bose headphones on the market, but they lack spatial audio features.
It’s a little hard to get excited about calling a pair of $180 headphones “cheap,” but Bose products often come with a premium price tag. So, what exactly are you giving up by not opting for the more expensive QC Ultra (2nd generation)? One suite of features you’ll miss is Bose Immersive Audio – a dashboard of spatial audio settings and customizations available for free in the Bose app. Although the QC headphones include Quiet and Aware presets (also in the Bose app), Bose Immersive Audio’s multi-dimensional soundstage and head-tracking technology aren’t an option.
The Bose QC Ultra also supports Bose CustomTune, another in-app feature that calibrates audio and ANC in real time to deliver the best sound quality and noise isolation for your ear shape. Side by side, the QC Ultra also offers improved noise cancellation, but probably not enough of a difference in attenuation to justify spending an extra $120. Oddly enough, there is also a second generation of Bose QC earbuds, but they aren’t available to buy new (we’re not sure why).
When it comes to true Bose over-ear and over-ear headphones, the cheapest set of cans you can currently get your hands on is the Bose QuietComfort Headphones (1st generation), usually found for around $250.
